“We are now in Martinique. After installing the Hydrovane, we left Tenerife on December 11 2016 and after 18 days at sea we arrived in Martinique.

At 1100nm from Martinique during the night with 30/35 knots of wind and 3 to 5 meters waves we heard 2 big noises like something hitting the boat on the side and almost immediately the autopilot stopped working and the boat went beam to the waves. The steering wheel was blocked and we could no longer steer. Not right not left.

So we put down the sails, started the motor and used the Hydrovane to steer! When the day came I reestablished the sails and we finished the trip with the Hydrovane without any problems.

At the end I am happy I did install the Hydrovane, especially that I saw on YouTube that at the same time 2 sailboats almost the same size as mine with the same problem. The crew had to abandon the the ships and left both boats in the middle of the Atlantic and lost everything.

Now I am telling everybody to install the Hydrovane.

… again thanks to the Hydrovane. It saved my boat.”

– Jacques, Amel Mango 52

“In the Queen’s Birthday storm (6 yacht lost) the Hydrovane saved us days of exhausting steering and allowed us to pump, prepare food, rest, and make needed repairs.

While in the big following seas, averaging over 10 knots under bare poles, the Hydrovane steered, most of the time, while a crewmember simply sat behind the wheel, ‘riding shotgun’. Under such circumstances fatigue is a serious and insidious problem, leading to passivity and impaired judgement and potentially deadly mistakes.

When we attempted deploy a sea-anchor we fell backward off a wave and busted our main rudder’s steering system, but the Hydrovane carried on. I don’t know of any other unit that could stand up to that kind of punishment. With the boat’s main rudder inoperable the Hydrovane, alone, steered us 500 miles to Fiji.”

– SV Mary T, Cheoy Lee Offshore Rhodes 41

“At 0900hrs this morning the main steering quadrant failed – it sheared in two places and is in need of a good welder.

We rigged up the emergency tiller which we centered, and are steering using the Hydrovane.  This works very well considering we are using the manual bilge pump handle as a tiller and we’re steering from the ‘hen bench’. It’s much the same as steering a small outboard motor in a dinghy. Before the incident, we were having a fine sail straight downwind before a 25 kt following breeze, but have reverted to motoring for ease of handling.

So we are now proceeding directly to Atuona for repairs, and expect to arrive tomorrow in the late afternoon. Fatu Hiva will have to wait for another time.

There are numerous things that are on our side. Firstly, the Hydrovane makes steering much more manageable, instead of trying to steer from the bowels of the vessel. Secondly, we are only 145nm from a safe harbour, and most probably a good welder/mechanic. Thirdly, and most importantly, the failure occurred well away from land where we could sort things out in an orderly fashion, trying different steering techniques until we found the best combination. And lastly, after a wicked night of strong squalls, the skies cleared this morning in fine tradewind fashion. Landfall tomorrow morning.”

– SV Madhatter, Roberts 44 Ketch

“…the Hydrovane did a great job and without it we might have ended up on the shores of Senegal, or before that destroyed by colliding with bigger ships in the ship lane between Cape Verdes and Africa; that was my main worry.

[After the main rudder was lost], we steered as you probably know using the vane, a drogue and close reefed sails. In my personal point of view we would be in severe trouble not having the vane. We needed more gear to steer the boat, that is true, but I think that has to do with the following fact; a heavy boat like mine with semi-long keel but WITHOUT a main rudder will always tend to go up against the wind because the lateral plane (the sideways force….) is destroyed – the main rudder being a very important part. Our mainsail was stuck too so we could not use that either. The whole balance of the boat was gone, making it almost impossible to steer… BUT we made it to Cape Verdes and are proud of that fact.

A heavy boat with everything in place steers with the vane, surely! Before the incident happened the Hydrovane steered beautifully and everybody onboard was amazed by its easy operation and the fact that it seemed to steer better than our old autopilot.

Anyway, I think it is a good story thanks to the Hydrovane.”

– SV Modus Vivendi, Motiva 49

“I have a C&C 39 with a semi-balanced spade rudder. My intent was to go off-shore sailing with my family. To ensure that I did not have to worry about the rudder, I had [an engineer] design me a new, updated rudder. I then had [a boatyard] build the new rudder. And to really be sure, I put a Hydrovane on the back of the boat.

Myself and my two young boys (10 and 12) were entering between the two rock breakwaters of the Nuevo Vallarta channel down here in Mexico. Well, the channel into the marina was running quite a bit of a swell, with breaking waves along the rocks. My youngest son was at the wheel, so I told him to speed up so we could try to keep ahead of the waves and not broach going in.

As we entered between the two rock breakwaters he started yelling that he could not steer. I grabbed the wheel and –  nothing. We were veering off towards the rocks of the breakwater at close to 5 knots. Thinking the steering cable broke, I hit the autopilot. I could see it turning the shaft and still nothing.

People started waving us off and passing pangas started yelling at us to get away from the rocks. I put the boat hard in reverse and then the waves started hitting us. According to the depth sounder we should have hit bottom, and I thought we are either going to be smashed against the rocks or we were going to get knocked down. From backing hard into the waves the cockpit started to get flooded.

Then I remembered the Hydrovane right behind me! I pulled the pin and pushed the tiller over hard, and before you knew it we are back in the channel, and at the slip.

Looking at the boat from the side we saw that the main rudder was completely gone. We later found it drifting in the channel. The shaft had sheared off, perhaps from corrosion from some as yet undetermined source.

This was the day before yesterday and just wanted to say ‘thanks…’”

– SV Outrider, C&C 39